quickens to Obedience As the Apostle Paul found it in himself when he sayes The Love of Christ constrains us 2 Cor. 5.14 since none can apprehend such an Excess and Overflow of Undeserved Love but must needs think himself obliged to return all Acts of Love whereby he may express his complacency in and desire of a streighter Union As the Apostle John argues we love him i. e. God because he loved us first 1 Joh. 4 19. Since then our Lord Christ is pleased with nothing more then with the Crucifying of those Lusts and Mortifying of those Sinnes for which he died it must needs follow from hence that every Believer and therein a Lover of Christ will find himself sensibly stirred with the Hatred of Sinne as often as he reflects upon the death of Christ as men use to detest and abhorre the sight of those Weapons by which their Friends were Murdered For since every Believer must needs know that he hath no otherwise any Title to Pardon than as he is purified by the Blood of Christ Heb. 9. without the shedding of which there would have been no Remission hence he dares not nay he cannot goe on to live in Sinne because by so doing he shall adde New Wounds New Sorrowes New Marks of Dishonour to Christ by whose Stripes alone he must expect to be healed Adde to this that the Spirit of God which by quickning the Immortall Seed of the Word Psal 51. begets Faith is a clean Spirit and will not suffer Sinne to cohabit with it self but Mortifies Subdues and Quels it according to that of the Apostle Rom. 8.9 Ye are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit i. e. Ye walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit if so be the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in you and again If Christ vers 10. i. e. his Spirit be in you the Body is dead by reason of Sinne vers 13. i. e. it dies to sinne And if by the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the Flesh ye shall live All which places imply that it is the Spirits proper business to Mortifie Sinne there is no True Life without it So that put all this together Since 1. Gods pardoning Sinne for the sake of Christ is the highest expression of Love imaginable 1. Joh. 4.10 as the Apostle John cries out Herein is Love i. e. Love to an Hyperbole Love beyond any degree of comparison not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Sonne to be the Propitiation of our Sinnes 2. Since this expression of Love on Gods part cannot be embraced by Faith on ours but it must needs beget Love again as the Sun beams cannot fix themselves directly upon the Earth but they will conveigh Warmth and Heat together with themselves 3. Since whereever Love is engendred it is always Active carrying out the Soul with unquiet longings after Union with and till that can be compassed of Likeness to the Object it loves As the Earth no sooner conceives Heat by the Action of the Sunne but presently returns and reflects it back again Lastly Since the Spirit of God which dwells in a Believer is alwayes actuating and blowing up this Love and improving the strength of it especially in the subduing of Sinne upon this consideration because Sinne is contrary to the Nature of God and to the Merit of Christ from hence it demonstrably follows that the best way to Mortifie Sinne is rightly to conceive of the Freeness of Gods Grace in pardoning it Vse This may serve to show us the True Nature of Justifying Faith To think as perhaps some careless men doe that Faith is nothing else but a Confident Perswasion that our Sinnes are pardoned for the sake of Christ without any other notable Effect upon us this is at the best an Ungrounded Fancy which will in the end deceive us From what I have said it may appear that True Justifyfying Faith carries along with it these two Inseperable Effects 1. It pacifies the Conscience it begets a Calm within When a Sinner first begins to be troubled for Sinne there must needs be a kind of Earthquake and Tempest in the Soul as God saith of the wicked that he hath no Peace but he is like a troubled Sea which cannot rest Isa 57.19 A wicked man is not more Eager and Impatient to commit Sinne than he is troubled and disquieted after it for whenever he cools and can be at leasure to consider what he hath done he can propose nothing to himself but matter of Anguish and Vexation without there is the Law complaining and God sentencing within Conscience accusing and Sinne condemning In this Tumult and Hurry of Thoughts if there be but dropped into any so much strength of Faith as to lay fast hold upon Gods generall Pardon like Easther catching at the Golden Scepter when it was stretched out to her presently the storm is laid and a marvellous calm ensues As the Apostle hath it Rom. 5.1 Being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. I doe not speak this as if I thought that Faith did exclude all manner of Doubting but that it doth expell Distraction For to doubt is so much consistent with Faith that I take it for granted there never was nor ordinarily can be any True Faith without it As at the Creation Night did precede Day so in Conversion Darkness and Ignorance did precede the Enlightnings of Faith and Doubting like a Mist doth still attend it because our Faith like our Knowledge in this life neither is nor can be perfect for then it would no longer be Faith but Fruition Yet this Doubting which like an Allay God suffers to be mixed with the strong Wine of Faith need not at all disturb our Peace of Conscience but rather is left as the Canaanites were to teach Israel to warre Jude 2. to quicken our endeavour and to make us diligent in the use of those means whereby we may be yet more confirmed and setled 2. True Faith as it Pacifies the Conscience so it Purifies the Heart Acts 15.9 as the Apostle Peter speaks that God did put no difference between the Jews and Gentiles because he purified their Hearts by Faith Which is so inseparable an Effect of True Faith that though Justification be not Sanctification yet it is never without it and therefore they are sometimes put one for the other as he that is just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him be justified still i. e. let him goe on to be more Holy Rev. 22.11 And to the Corinthians Ye are washed ye are Sanctified 1 Cor. 6.11 ye are Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God So By his mercy he saved us Tit. 3 5 7. by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost That being justified by his Grace we should be made Heirs Where Holiness which is an Effect
by the Apostle Paul and that without a Figure the Blood of God Act. 20.28 i. e. which the Sonne of God shed in that Humane Nature which he had united unto himself Who is there then that will not think such Blood sufficient Ransome For as the Apostle argues excellently Heb. 9.13 If the Blood of Bulls and Goats sanctifies to the purifying of the Flesh How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the Eternall Spirit offered himself up to God purge our Conscience from Dead Works i. e. Cleanse our Souls both from the Leprosie and Guilt of Sinne So that to eek out this Sacrifice by mingling with it any Vain Oblations of our own is nothing else but to lessen its value as they who light up their Candles at noon-day doe onely Affront and Prejudice the splendour of the Sunne When such a Price is already paid for any to appear Nice and Dainty to cry out they are not Humbled not Sorrowfull not Thankfull Enough and therefore neglect to make use of it this is nothing else but either Peevishly to refuse offered Comfort or else Proudly to think we are able by our delay to make our selves worthy of it Reason 3 Thirdly The last Argument may be taken from the Impossibility there is that we should be able to perform any thing acceptably unto God till we are come within the Terms of the Covenant Then are we within the Covenant on Gods part when we have accepted it on ours but till then we are under the Law all our Works are Legall Works and our Repentance it self is to be repented of as being infinitely short of that Perfection which the Law requires Besides upon supposition that such a measure of Humiliation Sorrow Contrition or other such like Acts were prerequired to capacitate and make us fit for the receiving of our Pardon what infinite disquiets must this needs beget in every Sinner that is now upon the point of his Conversion for who shall be able to fix a just Proportion or assuredly tell him that he hath grieved and mourned enough since there can be no Proportion between our Sinne and our Sorrow and likewise our Bodies may be wasted with Grief and our Eyes fail us with weeping and yet all our Fears prove onely an Idle and a Fruitless Expence as Cains and Judas did There can be therefore no better or more warrantable Advice be given unto a poor lamenting Creature than to bid him leave off his Works and throw himself immediately into the Arms of Mercy since who so rests upon his own Endeavours labours in the very Fire and undertakes a Task beyond his manage in thinking to Fit himself for Mercy whereas it must be Mercy already in some measure apprehended which must qualifie and fit us for the receiving more Object 1 Against this it may be objected That the Promise in the Gospell runs Mar. 16. He that believeth shall be saved and the Command by the Apostle is Acts 3 19. Repent that your sinnes may be blotted out From whence it may be gathered that Faith and Repentance are required as Conditions to Remission and that Pardon of Sinne is not so Absolute on Gods part but that still something must be done on ours to qualifie us for the receiving it But I answer Answ 1. For Repentance that is no distinct and separate condition of it self because it alwayes follows Faith and can no more be severed from it than Motion from Life whence it is that the Apostles doe promiscuously use one for the other as Peter to those who were wrought on by his Sermon and came to him for Direction he bids them Repent Acts 2.37 but Paul to the Jaylor who was in the same case he commands him to Believe and our Saviour joyns them both together in that Epitome of his first Sermon Repent and believe the Gospell Mar. 1.13 thereby intimating that one could not be without the other Therefore 2. Though Faith be required as a Condition to the receiving of Christ and Pardon by him yet it is such a Condition as takes nothing at all from the Freeness of Gods Gift no more than Emptying the Hand and taking an Almes doth lessen his Bounty that bestowes it For Faith is nothing else but a Naked Hand and hath no influence at all upon Gods Gift to make it more or less Free but all its influence is downwards by applying and appropriating of that Gift to make it Ours And therefore in Scripture-language to Believe in Christ and to Receive Him is the same thing As John speaks Joh. 1.12 As many as received him to them he gave power to become the sonnes of God even to as many as believe on his Name As a Medicine may be given gratis by a Physician he may ask nothing for it yet except the sick-man take it it will not cure him So God offers Christ and Mercy freely but unless we Believe i. e. Receive him he will not profit us And in this and no other sense is Faith a Condition But 3. Even in this signification as Faith signifies not a power of Acting but meerly a power of Accepting yet so it is a Condition onely of Gods bestowing and not of Mans procuring Thus our Saviour Joh. 6.44 vers 35. None can come unto me i. e. believe on me as he there explains except the Father which hath sent me draw him And again He that hath heard and learned of the Father he cometh unto me so No man can come unto me vers 45. except it were given to him of my Father All which places show that Faith which is a coming to Christ vers 64. is not wrought in any but peculiar Power and Influence of God And accordingly the Apostle Paul By Grace saith he are ye saved Ephes 2.8 through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God i. e. That Faith by which ye are enabled to receive Christ is as much the Gift of God as Christ himself who is received by it Therefore he prayes that they may be strengthened by the Spirit of God c. 3.16 17. in the Inner Man that so Christ might dwell in their Hearts by Faith intimating that without such Supernaturall Assistance they neither could nor would Believe Object 2 Against this it may be objected again If God alone gives Faith why then are we commanded to Believe and to Repent for this presupposes a Power in the Creature to Obey or else the Command would be in vain Answ I answer That Gods command doth not alwayes presuppose a Power already existing in the Creature but being a Word from God it gives that Power which was not there before As when God said Let there be Light there was no activity in that Dark Chaos sufficient of it self to produce it but God by his Word at the same time created what he did command To which Action of Gods the Apostle compares his
Spirit to blow it up which should make us carefull to throw out the evil Firment least it should sowr the whole Mass and by its corrupt quality infect whatever it mixeth with Vse This may serve to rectifie their mistakes who think it a very facile and easie matter to be a Christian Were there indeed no more required then to keep modum peccandi to regulate our vile Actions and to preserve a mean in sinning this would not at all be hard such a measure is atteinable by meer Morality The Heathen whose Lives we read of had many of them this degree in great Perfection whose best virtues were onely vitia temperata well mingled and Allayed Vices Their light how glorious and great soever it seems was nothing else but Coloured Darkness and their best Heats onely rebuted cold sufficient to satisfie the world and to get Applause with Men but as for Inward Purity and Heart-Mortification that was a thing they never dreamt of this was a task reserved for our Saviours followers He hath not minced the matter when he tells us that the way to Heaven is a Streight and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a squeezed pressed and Narrowed way so pent up Mat. 7. and very streight that no Wind of Ambition no Tumour of Pride no running-Sore of Lust will enter there he tells us plainly that we may take our choice either cut off our Hands i. e. abridg our selves of our most Usefull and Profitable Sinnes or else into Hell fire it will certainly be very dreadfull to endure the one and it must needs be painfull to doe the other Hence Fear and Trembling Watchfullness and Sollicitude are so often called for we must be alwayes upon our Guard because ever in a fighting posture which is a very uneasie service And these being the Termes upon which we are to follow Christ it is very sad to consider what a Liberty both in Life and Language even Professors of Religion doe take as if they had a mind to try how neer they could come to Sinne without actuall Sinning We use to be afraid of the shadow of a Lion and in a bodily distemper none willingly would venture upon a little Poison least by accident it should prove Mortall Why we should not be as carefull to avoid those Sinnes which none but fools count Little is a Question we cannot assoil if we either value our Souls or prize our Peace with God with whom to break in little things is great Presumption It will be to no purpose to scape greater Corruption if less may be sufficient to damn us Rom. 6.14 One Chain ties the Slave as fast to his Oar as if he had a thousand so doth one Lust bind up the Sinner unto Satans service since all the while it reigns it proclaims that Sinne is our Master Vse 2 To exhort all Believers to set upon this Duty as for others they have no skill in it it is a peculiar Task for such as have the Life of Faith and this they ought so much the more earnestly be excited to in that all the while they allow themselves in any one Sinne they are Estranged from the Life of God 1 Joh. 1.7 if we expect to have fellowship with him we must walk in the Light as he is in the Light As Darkness is nothing else but the Absence of the Sunnes Light so Sinne which the Apostle calls Spirituall Darkness is nothing else but the Absence of the Light of Gods Countenance which while it shines upon the soul it preserves it not only from Discomfort but likewise from Dangerous stumblings It is indeed very possible for a True Believer through heedlesness and inadvertency to fall into some Gross Sinnes as David Hezekiah and Peter did but yet as while they lye in them their condition seems little to differ from that of Reprobates so when they begin to recover out of them we may learn from the Practice of those forementioned Saints that their Peace with God and Assurance of his Favour is not recovered without great Expence of Tears and Sorrow Every Sinne therefore is to be mortified if for no other respect yet for this in that any one allowed and countenanced in the Soul will cast a cloud upon all our Graces and hinder us for the time from discerning the Truth and Sincerity of any As we therefore prize our own Peace and Sense of Communion with God so must we bestirre our selves to keep every Corruption from breaking out and prevailing For the effecting of which the observing of these Rules will be very necessary 1. Distinguish carefully between the Naturall and the Sinfull Desires of the Soul There are some Desires viz. of Food of Rest of Raiment c. which as they are Naturall so they are Innocent too Our Saviour himself was not without them the Apostle saith Heb. 4.15 He was tempted in all things as we are i. e. with Hunger with Cold and Nakedness yet without Sinne. The Body as it is a creature of God is good and must be provided for and therefore the Mortification of the Body consists not in denying it the Necessaries of Life but in Abridging it of its Irregular and Sensuall Appetites 1 Tim. 6.8 Having Food and Raiment saith the Apostle let us be therewith content from whence it follows that either through Want to be Destitute or through Will to deprive our selves of Food and Raiment is our Misery and not our Mortification They that are in the Flesh cannot please God Rom. 8.8 The meaning is not they that are in the Body cannot please God for so it is our duty to please him but they that walk in the Vanity and Sensuality of their Fleshly Mind cannot please God Such as commit those Actions that the Apostle hath branded with the Name of Works of the Flesh as Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Gal. 5.22 Drunkenness c. these cannot please God because they walk in Wayes directly contrary to the Holiness and Spirituality of his Commands But where the Appetite is hedged in and bounded within those limits that God hath appointed there to come Eating and Drinking as our Saviour did may more redound to the Glory of God in our thankfull Using of his Bounty than any Forced and uncommanded Abstinence So that all those Wayes of Mortification which are now prescribed in the Church of Rome and too much doted on by men that love to be talked on for their Sanctity are but the Old Needless and Sinfull Methods of the Pharisees revived with greater Rigour and Austerity which consist as the Apostle hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 2.23 in Unmercifullness to and not sparing of the Body and seem to have a Face of Wisdome and True Holiness but indeed are meer Folly as neither reaching to pull out the Core of Sinne which lies within nor being able to keep the practisers of them from Exchanging a Carnall Lust for Spirituall Pride and so instead of right subduing the Body they onely swell and puff up the Soul 2. Pray for the Spirit of Christ without which we shall be too Weak to set upon and conquer this In-bred Enemy Whatever is born of the Flesh is Flesh i. e. both Prall and Sinfull and Flesh will never be able to subdue Flesh the Spirit which alwayes acts in Believers must be set awork about it Rom. 8.13 If by the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the Flesh faith the Apostle ye shall live i. e. ye shall live indeed for it is this Spirit alone that quickens And whoever thinks of mortifying his Corruptions without this supernaturall Assistance begins a Combate wherein he is sure to be foiled since not onely his own Nature but likewise the Powers of Hell are violently bent against him and how shall he scape the Malice and Wickedness of those Evill spirits unless the Spirit of God which will alwayes reside where his presence is sollicited doth secure the soul and give us strength for the Victory Lastly Labour for the Assurance of the Pardon of your Past Sinnes As he that runnes a Race must first put off his Fetters so whoever engages against the Violence of his Lusts must first be satisfied that his past offences are forgiven or else the sense of Sinne unpardoned will lye like a Weight upon him and instead of exciting him to strive against it betray him to its Assaults For the Attaining of this besides what the Spirit of God may immediately work which case falls not under any Rule since the Spirit blowes where and when it pleaseth there is no Method can be given better than that which I have hitherto been insisting on and that is to cast our selves upon Gods Free-Grace in Christ which who so doth is as certain never to miscarry as the Word of God and the Experience of all the Saints now Triumphing in Heaven can make him FINIS
abounded there Grace or the Gift of Life by Christ did much more abound The word in the Originall signifies something more than enough something 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that was above and beyond what was sufficient to Antidote and to Expell the Contagion of Adams sinne Just as if a Man should let in a Sea to cleanse a sink so abundant was the Overflow of Christs Righteousnesse for the Purifying of those Natures which Adams sinne had infected Object 3 The third and last Objection is conteined in the Text and the sense of it amounts to this Some may say If the Merit of Christs Death doth so infinitely transcend the Demerit of Adams Sinne as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports then will it not follow from hence that the Gospell will be a Rule of Strictness and Severity of Life no longer but rather set open a door to all manner of Impiety since this Conclusion may easily be drawn Since Gods Goodness is so Free as well as full since Christ in the most proper acception did die for Sinners will it not follow the greater Sinners we are the more acceptable we shall be to Christ and the more Offences we commit the better will his Goodness in pardoning them appear As to run upon the Score is the best way to set out and to adorn a Creditors Munificence Come on then will wicked men say Let us sinne that Grace may abound Answ To this Odious and Unworthy Inference which yet so corrupt and disingenuous it our Nature most men are ready not onely to Reason but to Live by the Apostle returns a double Answer 1. In a Phrase of Abhorrency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He seems as it were to start and to blush at the bare mention of such a supposall and therefore hastily cries out Farre be it that any should be such a Wretch as to make Rich and Undeserved Mercy a Motive of his Contumacy that any should therefore presume to Offend because God is Willing to Pardon that any should therefore spurn their Heavenly Father on the Bowels because they are Tender and Yearn toward them This doth not use to be our manner of dealing with Men and therefore Farre be it that any should thus deal with God 2. He answers by instancing in the Life of Himself and those Believing Romanes to whom he writes As if he had said Farre be it that any should make such Impious Conclusions from so Holy and so Gracious Premises that any should presume to Poison themselves because there is an Antidote so neer them If any doe so it is their own Fault for we have experimentally found this Doctrine of Free-Grace to have had a clean contrary Effect and Operation upon us and instead of Exciting us to Sinne even to cut up and root out in us not onely the Acts but even the Habit of Sinfullness How then saith he shall we that are dead to sinne live any longer therein Which being the Full scope and Design of the Apostles whole Discourse it affords us this usefull Observation That the best and most effectuall way to mortifie the Power of In-dwelling sinne is to consider how free how Absolute how Unconditionall Gods Grace is in pardoning it Before I proceed to handle this I must needs take notice of the Objection and from thence observe Doct. 1 That Corrupt and Curious Wits doe usually draw pernicious and destructive consequences from the most Precious and soul-saving Truths For Instance What Doctrine can be more Winning to a Desperate or more comfortable to a Despairing Sinner than to hear that Christ hath already fully satisfied for Sinne that God is willing to be reconciled that notwithstanding his Greatness he even woes us to be at Peace with him and in token of his Readiness he offers us Peace and Pardon unclogged with any Condition he requires nothing but Faith i. e. a Naked and an Empty hand to take what he is willing in Bounty to bestow Yet the Disputer in my Text labours to make this Sweet appear to be very Unsound Doctrine and would fright men from embracing their Cordiall lest by accident it should heighten and encrease their Distemper Thus it hath fared with all the Abstruse and most Mysterious Points of our Religion the Incarnation of the eternall Sonne of God the Resurrection of the Body the Assistance of the Holy Spirit in the Hearts of Believers have been all attaqued and set upon by mens Irregular Fancies and each Age hath produced some Sect or other who have made themselves Famous by direct opposition unto those forementioned Truths But to omit them I shall content my self with those Instances which the Apostle makes in this Epistle Chap. 3 He layes down this Conclusion That God in the Wisdome of his Providence so orders and manages all Events as that out of Evill he doth extract Good and makes even our Unrighteousness vers 5. to set off and to illustrate his Righteousness From whence one presently inferres then is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance i. e. who punisheth men for that which at last doth redound to the Advantage of his Glory and then goes on Let us doe Evill that good may come of it i. e. Let us Sinne that Gods Glory may be promoted Which Impious Deduction whereby Gods Providence is made to countermand his Precepts the Apostle confutes in that sharp Expression Whose Damnation is Just i. e. such who will not actively Glorifie God by their Obedience unto his Revealed Will God will get himself Glory of them by Punishing their Disobedience Again in that Great Business of Gods Absolute and Unconditionall Electing of some unto Eternall Life Rom. 9. the Apostle instanceth in the Examples of Jacob and Esau who when as yet neither of them had done Good or Evill yet one was preferred before the other or which the Apostle gives no other reason but this That the Purpose of God according to Election might stand not of Works but of him that calleth Against which Unmerited and Irrespective choice vers 14. there is One in that place objects Is there not then Unrighteousness with God i. e. Is not God Partiall and Unequall in his determinations concerning Man thus to chuse and preferre one before another when as by Nature All are Equall To this he answers by alleaging God's Soveraignty vers 15. who in the case of Pharaoh affirms of Himself I will have Mercy on whom I will have Mercy and the Apostle inferres from thence and whom he will he hardens i. e. he showes no Mercy to but leaves them in their Naturall Hardness and Impenitency And when the Objector is not satisfied with this but cries out Why doth he then find fault i. e. why doth he reprove and seem Angry against sinne and sinners for who hath resisted his Will The Apostle then in stead of answering any further asks a Question which the Bold Disputers of our times will never answer and that is Who art